Gut Oggau: Behind the mask
Their pencil-drawn eyes peer at you from the shelves of trendy wine bars and shops around the globe, beckoning you to come closer and introduce yourself. They are the Gut Oggau 'family', a fictional series of characters that adorn the labels of one of the world's most recognisable biodynamic wine estates.
A recent tour brought them to Dublin to showcase their new Maskerade series, made from grapes grown in a recently acquired vineyard, now undergoing conversion to the strictly 'hands-off' style of farming that Gut Oggau is famous for. Cleverly, because the vines haven't been grown according to the Oggau philosophy, the wine is not yet ready to become part of the family – and the masked characters on the labels reflect that in an intriguing way.
After a collaboration with Harold's Cross eatery Bastible, a wine dinner at Green Man Wines in Terenure and a takeover of Drury Street wine shop Loose Canon, it's clear that Ireland has an appetite for the vivid, textured flavours of Gut Oggau.
The Austrian winemakers have made something of a stir throughout the world of natural wine in recent years. Situated in the region of Burgenland, they farm biodynamically and produce only naturally fermented wines — without any use of fertiliser, pesticides, or other chemicals.
Since 2007, Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselböck and her husband Eduard Tscheppe have made some of the most interesting and delicious natural wines on the market. The couple found their wines to be so full of life, each so unique in character and personality, that they wanted to transfer the personality onto the labels: “We describe the wines as if they are people, and then a friend of ours creates faces according to the personal profile and draws the labels.”
Each of these wines has its own personality and is closely related to the other wine characters. Thus, the wines become distinctive people, who together form a unique wine family — and now the wines of Gut Oggau represent an entire clan. Ten wines embody three generations: with two grandparents, five parents and three youngsters accounted for. The younger the generation, the lighter and more energetic the wine — while the older members of the family are heavier and more powerful.
In an effort to do away with any preconceived notions relating to grape variety or region, the Tscheppes commissioned an artist in Germany to draw the image of each wine from a set of written descriptions detailing the personality of each bottling. The front label of each bottle offers nothing beyond a black and white portrait, the person’s name and a vintage date.
The Maskerade series is an intriguing departure for the estate, who say: "These new members of the Gut Oggau wine family will be treated as lovingly as anyone else ... but it will be a while before the distinctive character of the vineyards becomes apparent. They stay hidden behind the mask for now, until the day they show us their mysterious, beautiful ego."